“Ouch!” I grabbed my shoulder after the third attempt, feeling certain I’d torn a ligament or dislocated it. In that moment, I made a mental note to encourage Bella to be strong.
Not emotionally strong—that was fine too. But emotional strength wasn’t going to pull start anything. She needed upper body strength to pull start snowblowers and open stubborn jar lids.
“We’re shoveling. Aren’t we?”
I glanced up at Bella in her long coat, hat, and gloves.
“It’s looking that way.” I frowned, rubbing my shoulder.
Shoveling put me fifteen minutes late to the store, but no one was waiting at the door, so I was fine. At first I assumed the lack of a Saturday morning crowd during the holiday season was a symptom of the big snow.
But … What Did You Expect? had people piling into their store.
There were actually two people shivering by my front door, Kandi and Tiffany. I asked them both to work since weekends during the holiday season were insanely busy.
Were being the keyword.
“Hey, girls! Sorry I’m late.” I unlocked the door. “I didn’t know so much snow was forecasted.”
Tiffany laughed as the three of us skittered into the store to get out of the cold. “You should get a snowblower.”
“Yes. Great idea. Can I give you two young girls some advice?”
“What’s that?” Kandi asked, turning on the display lights while I unlocked the register.
“Focus on strengthening your upper body. Pull-ups, pushups, curls … whatever. Just don’t become so obsessed with your legs, butt, and thighs that you set yourself up to be completely helpless someday if you’re ever widowed.”
“O-kay …” Tiffany lifted her eyebrows while turning on the Open sign.
“Where’s this from?” I picked up a hot drink cup; both girls had carried one into the shop when I unlocked it. I sniffed the steam coming from the opening in the lid.
“Oh, it’s from What Did You Expect?” Kandi took a sip of hers as I returned Tiffany’s cup to the counter. “Free organic hot chocolate until noon today in celebration of the first snow. So when you weren’t on time, Tiff ran over and got us hot chocolates.”
“I also picked up several bottles of vinegar. I’m so addicted to it. I use it for a fat free salad dressing.”
“How nice of him,” I murmured as I gazed at the lineup outside of his shop.
By noon, less than ten people had walked through my door, and less than five made purchases.
“I’m going to grab soup. You girls want anything?”
“Brought my lunch,” Tiffany said as she rearranged the ornaments on the tree by the display window.
“Me too,” Kandi hollered from the back room, unpacking a new shipment of popcorn tins.
“Okay. I’ll be back.” I slipped on my white, down North Face jacket and donned my wool mittens before heading out the door. The line for Spoons was nearly as long as the line had been that morning at What Did You Expect?
“Hey, Elsie. Did you have any trouble getting out of your driveway this morning?” Jan, my neighbor, asked as she sidled up to me. We’d made it to the lucky part of the line—the part that was inside instead of the ten-people-deep part still outside.
“It was touch and go at first. I didn’t think I was ever going to get the snowblower started. And I didn’t.” I laughed. “But Bella helped me shovel it.”
“We have Anderson’s plow ours. Takes them three swipes and they’re done. Twenty bucks.”
“Twenty bucks?” I tugged off my mittens and shoved them into my pockets. “Pfft … this morning I was so frustrated I would have exchanged sexual favors for someone to plow my drive in three swipes.”
She chuckled as did I. Jan didn’t attend my church, or any church, so I could get away with remarks like that.
“Hmm …”
I made a one-eighty-degree turn to see where the deep hmm came from.
Kael stood behind me, grinning from ear to ear. “You know, Elsie, I have a blade on my pickup truck. I’d be happy to make a few swipes for you.”
I loosened my scarf and unzipped my coat several inches. “Oh … for twenty bucks?”
With his hands buried in his front pockets, he lifted his shoulders. “Sure. Or we can barter … per your earlier suggestion.”
“My earlier sug—” It hit me. The turd had been eavesdropping.
Jan laughed as I searched for words, but they were nowhere to be found.
He shot Jan a tiny wink, a reward for her engaging in his inappropriate humor. “Or I can do it for free, a courtesy for my